Vexed Bermoothes

Dr. Brown’s Council of Economic Advisors met last weekend. Like many intiatives in Bermuda, it is a PR exercise that sounds like something good, but doesn’t really have substance. At best, it’s a brainstorming session amongst cronies. Without doubt, our presidential-minded leader is copying the US Council of Economic Advisors. However the CEA has a [...]

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Headcount at the Bermuda Government has grown by more than 1,000 people since the PLP was elected 9 years ago. In other words, our full-time civil service has grown by more than a third (the number of consultants has also grown considerably, but Government is less forthcoming on those numbers). This obviously carries a huge [...]

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Government has reported an 80 percent graduation rate for the 2006-7 public school year, a stunning 22 percentage point increase over last year. It’s magic! No, this is another fishy statistic from the Bermuda Government. Reliable numbers do not jump like this without a major intervention, manipulation, or an unhealthy case of spin. Minister Horton [...]

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Minister of Community and Cultural Affairs Wayne Perinchief has joined his brother Phil in boosting the controversial Workforce Equity Act. Showing an interesting interpretation of public consultation, Minister Perinchief indicates that the while the comment period has been extended “We don’t believe we are going to drastically change the draft bill, some small features perhaps.” [...]

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Dr. Brown has unveiled his presidential Council of Economic Advisors.  They include (as always) his brother Philip Butterfield of HSBC, Southlands crony Brian Duperreault, and BIU treasurer Cecil Durham.  The surprise member is Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and doyen of that top stratum of the American urban elite that Dr. [...]

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The Bermuda Government is discriminating against Bermudians married to foreigners with changes made to the Immigration Act earlier this summer. The new pressure group, Land Opportunities for All Bermudians (LOAB), is urging all Bermudians to speak out against the new property restrictions placed on mixed Bermudian/non-Bermudian couples. According to a spokesperson, “This government has always talked about [...]

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“Apartheid-like laws, short of any modicum of justice, launched, engineered and perpetuated for social and economic divide, is what this Government has the ‘temerity’ to address … There’s been no significant or fundamental change in the social and economic divide between blacks and whites, rich and poor, from at least 1616.” Comrade Attorney General Beret [...]

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So, the PLP has “trial ballooned” their intent to reinstate language in their constitution that would allow leadership challenges every two years. It was only a few years ago that the “safe harbour” was extended to four years to protect Jennifer Smith from the early predatory moves of Arthur Hodgson and Ewart Brown.  The change [...]

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Bermuda makes its daily bread through “light but effective” regulation of its target industries.  In other words, we work carefully to build business-friendly laws that are acceptable to regulators in other countries.  In part, Bermuda trades heavily on its good reputation to achieve this. That’s why a local leader’s involvement with unapproved stem cell treatments is so [...]

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